We are extending the deadline for the Call for Proposals until January 15, 2024!
Please see below for details regarding submission requirements. Submissions on any topic in developmental science are welcomed and encouraged!
Beyond Dualism: Embodiment Perspectives on Development
Organized by Dor Abrahamson and Jeffrey Lockman
Margaret Moulson, Local Organizer
The conference venue will be the Chestnut Conference Centre located in downtown Toronto and operated by the University of Toronto.
Submission Deadline: January 15, 2024
Conference Theme:
The 2024 conference theme will examine Embodiment as an epistemological proposal that the mind is formatively shaped by and for physical interaction with the environment and that higher cognition should be theorized from that developmental premise. Specifically, the conference will showcase cutting-edge scholarship exploring how cognitive activity, such as judgment, language, and problem-solving, draws on perceptuomotor neural substrates that evolve ontogenetically through active engagement in socio-cultural material contexts. Theories of embodiment could perturb the fundaments of cognitive science, because by carving human experience at its phenomenological and ecological joints they upend traditional epistemological and ontological dichotomies, such as brain–body, internal–external, self–other, imaginary–actual, or concrete–abstract.
What might this mean for theories of cognitive development and, correspondingly, for educational research and practice? And what of individuals with diverse sensory, motor, and cognitive capacities? As we evaluate the potential impact of embodiment on developmental and educational research, we find ourselves in need of new instruments that enable us to track humans’ multimodal interactions with artifacts and each other, and coordinate among neural, physiological, sensorial, clinical, phenomenological, and ethnographic data to build coherent integrated accounts of teaching and learning processes. Collectively, the invited program will address these issues from infancy to adulthood, bridging behavioral, cross-cultural, ethnographic, kinematic, and neural methods.
Plenary Speakers and Topics:
Dan Hutto (Wollongong University) - “Educating Enactive Minds”
Cristine Legare (UT Austin) - “The Development and Diversity of Cumulative Cultural Learning”
Blandine Bril (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) – “Culture as Rhythm: Bodies Artifacts and the Emergent Coordination of Enacted Practice”
Catherine S. Tamis–LeMonda (NYU) – “Embodied and Embedded Learning: Feedback Loops in Child Action, Caregiver Response, and the Environmental Context”
Anna Shvarts (Utrecht University) – “Embodying Culture Enculturating Bodies: An Example from Mathematics Teaching/Learning “
Program Proposal Guidelines
Submission Deadline: December 4th, 2023
Proposals need not address the conference theme—we welcome submissions on any topic in developmental science.
Proposal Submission Information
We are using
on-line submission forms. You will receive an email with all submission information listed upon submission. The form remains accessible so that updating is possible until the deadline. Full bibliographic references are not required, and tables and figures are not supported in the submission process. Proposals will be accepted in English only.
General Submission Procedure
Submission deadline is December 4th. Program Committee decisions will be sent in February 2024. Provisional scheduling of accepted submissions will be available in March 2024. The full program will be available in Guidebook on April 15th, 2024. Presenters of all accepted submissions (i.e., first authors) must register for the conference by April 29th, 2024, to be included in the program. The final program will be available in Guidebook by mid May.
Paper Presentations (15–18 minutes) may be focused on either empirical findings or theoretical analysis. The program review committee will select individual submissions and schedule a series of Paper Sessions that include 4 papers on similar topics. These sessions will have a moderator appointed by the program committee. A paper proposal should include a 250-word abstract (for publication in the conference program) and a max 1000-word summary (for the program review committee).
Poster Presentations may be focused on either empirical findings or theoretical analysis. The sessions are organized around broad themes derived from the posters selected for each session. Posters are mounted for display in a high-traffic area for the entire day of the session, but presenting authors need only attend their poster during the official session. A poster proposal must include a 250-word abstract (for publication in the conference program), and a max 1000-word summary (for the program review committee).
Symposium Sessions (90 minutes) should describe 4 presentations organized around a single topic, or 3 presentations and a named discussant who will comment on the presented papers. We assume the submitter is the named organizer and the chair. A symposium proposal should include a 400-word abstract (for publication in the conference program), and when the organizer/submitter selects the email addresses of each participating presenter, names and titles of individual presentations will be retrieved from their uploaded contribution.
Symposium Contributions Proposals All the presenters in a symposium are required to upload their own title, 250-word abstracts (for publication in the conference program), and a 1000-word summary (for the program review committee). They must also indicate the symposium they are contributing to.
Discussion Sessions (90 minutes) are intended to provide an interactive venue for exploring ideas that bear on the development of knowledge, broadly conceived. They may be formatted as debates, panels, or organized discussions; and may focus on any well-defined topic. Submissions must include a 400-word abstract (for publication in the conference program), and a max 1000-word summary (for the program review committee) that describes the topic and structure of the session and the role of each of the discussion leaders.
Discussion Contributions Proposals All the discussion leaders in a symposium are required to upload a brief 250-word bio/memo (for publication in the conference program). They must also indicate the discussion they are contributing to.
